Joe's POV
I'm currently sitting in my living room, with Asia, Jason, and Nicci. We're waiting for the rest of the family to show up. I'm sipping on a half glass of Irish Whiskey to take the edge off. It helps relax me. I didn't want to host a dinner party. I just want to get this over with, but Asia talked me into having them over for dinner. Then once she got Jason on board I had to do it.
We were all sitting on the sofa drinking and talking.
"Nicole, how are you gonna set me up like that? You said you were coming and then ghosted me." I say, remembering how she set up the talk with Bruce.
"I'm sorry, I got called in at some last minute to work." She explains, sipping her beer. "How'd it go by the way, we never discussed it." She asks
"He didn't understand where I was coming from, and he put his hands on me, so I flipped him on his ass, and walked out." I summarize.
"Yeah, I never seen dad go down like that. I was scared for him." Jason says
"Damn, Joe." Nicci says. "I'm sorry, bro." She says, hugging me.
"It's cool. I'm over him. I'm only hosting this because mom asked." I say honestly.
I hear the door open, and look over. It's mom and Ms. Tia.
"Hey momma!!" Nicole says getting up, sitting her beer down, hugging momma.
"Hey, momma's baby!!" Selma says, hugging and kissing Nicole.
Jason is greeting Ms. Tia, and Asia and I are seated on the sofa. She looks at me expectantly, sitting her beer down, before pulling me to my feet. She places a kiss on my lips, before walking us over to the parents.
"Hey, momma." I say hugging her, glass still in my hand.
"We already started, huh?" She asks, hugging me.
"I'm just sipping." I say
"Hey, Superstar!" Ms. Tia says
I can't help but smile. "Hey, ma." I say, pulling her into a hug.
"Can you let your father in the gate? Security isn't letting him in." Ms. Tia says.
"Okay." I say, taking my phone from my back pocket.
I dial the number, taking a long sip, letting the strong liquor glide down my throat, before putting the phone to my ear.
"Hey....Yeah. Let him through....Nah, not yet...I'll let you know....Alright." I say hanging up.
"He should be on his way." I say, downing the rest of the vodka.
Nicole and Jason lead them to the dining room.
"Water?" Asia says softly only for me to hear.
"I'm good." I say, "I'll stick to beer. Okay." I compromise.
"Alright." She agrees. "If you feel overwhelmed or get too upset, look at me, and I'll help, okay?"
"I don't want him saying anything disrespectful to you, or even talking to you for that matter." I confess. "Thank you, but I'll handle it. We're in my house now." I say
"Yeah, but he's still your father, babe." She explains
"So." I say, before hearing a knock on the door
I walk to the door, and open it. It's Bruce.
"Hey, son." He says
I just stand back, opening the door, allowing him to walk in. He comes in, and I close and lock my door.
"Hi." I say
"Hey, Mr. Momoa." Asia says, extending her hand.
His eyes light up, at the sight of her.
I will kill him.
"Hey, sweetie." He says, taking her hand, shaking it. "Nice to officially meet you." He smiles
"The pleasure's mine, Sir." Asia responds
But they're still holding hands though.
He lets her hand go, and she grabs her beer.
"Everyone is in the dining room. Right through there." Asia says, walking him around the corner, into the dining room.
I follow behind, grabbing me a beer too. I sit at the head of the table with Asia to the side of me, on my right, and my mom on the left. Nicole is laying out the food, as Jason is giving everyone either a beer or water. Mom takes a beer, and I give her a side eye. She rolls hers, before taking a water too. I chuckle to myself, before looking up, seeing Bruce sitting at the other end of the table.
I have to look directly at his ass all night.
Fuck me.
"I hear that you and Joe have been having it out lately." My mom says, looking down at Bruce.
"Yeah, we're not seeing eye to eye." He says
"So what should you guys do to get on the same page?" Ms. Tia asks
"I don't know. I've tried, but he's not mentally stable enough to understand what I'm saying, and how I feel about the situation." He answers
"Don't blame his mental health." Mom says
"I'm just saying, Selma. If he was taking his meds consistently, we would have better communication." He says. "I've been patient and considerate, but there's only so much a dad can take." He explains
"Well, you can't give up on him." Jason says
"Joe, why haven't you and your father seen eye to eye." Mom asks
"I don't like him. I don't respect him." I say. "His opinions on you, his memory of what happened, and his selective memory about me in his house is fucked up." I add. "I tried to talk before. I opened up to him, and he just shut me down so I'm over it." I finish
"Joseph, you're so disrespectful." Bruce says
"What do you expect? I tried to be civil with you, and I've tried to talk to you, but you just think you're right all the time." I say. "You try to compensate for what you did, by saying you did it for Nicole's and my good, but you hurt us more than you helped us." I explain. "This is my mother, and you had no right just ripping us from her. No matter how you look at it, you took her kids from her, and sentenced us to years in your fucking prison. Luckily Ms. Tia was there to help ease our pain when she could." I add. "Shit ain't right."
"Sentenced? Prison?" He asks, shaking his head.
"Nicole? How do you feel about this?" Ms. Tia asks
"Although I am grateful for you both putting us through school, and giving us an upscale lifestyle, and although I understand his decision to take us into your home. On the flip side, I do hold some resentment towards him for taking us from our mom. We were all she had. Neither he nor my father helped her when Mom was sick. It was us bathing, feeding, and taking care of her." She explains, looking a little uncomfortable.
"I get that, but don't you think that he was thinking of you when we took you both in?" Ms. Tia says
"Exactly. He was thinking of us, not mom." Nicole says
"He left mom for you, then cheated on you when you were pregnant, got mom pregnant and just left her. So I don't wanna hear how he loves and cares about me, Nicole, or mom. He's outright lying." I speak up. "Like I told Jay, don't try and paint him in a positive light. He's wrong. All the way around."
"I wouldn't say that, Joe." Ms. Tia says. "He was thinking about all of you. He took in you and your sister, a child that wasn't his. He got your mom to go to rehab. He paid for the first few months, and even took pictures of you and Nicole to her. So, I don't think he's lying, I just think you don't know the full story." Ms. Tia adds
"I never got any pictures. I didn't get anything from him, except a letter saying that Seppi is in highschool, and that Nicole is going to college. That's all." Mom explains
"Bruce?" Ms. Tia says, looking over at her husband.
"I used it as an excuse to take pictures of them. I grew to love Nicole as my very own daughter, and Joe is my biological son, and I wanted pictures of them." He explains
"So you lie, and have me take pictures of them for Selma, when you could've bonded with them yourself." Ms. Tia responds
"Now, he's attacking me verbally and physically." Bruce says
"You put your hands on me first, and I didn't attack your weak ass. I flipped you off of me." I explain
"Joe." Mom says
"Well, he jacked up my hair, and I defended myself." I explain
"You were being highly disrespectful, kinda how you're being now." Bruce says
"If you were me, and I were you, how would you react to this situation?" I ask, taking a swig of my beer.
"I would be upset about having to leave my mother, but I would understand why, and be grateful for the life I have, and the better life my mom has." He responds
"Even after I wouldn't let your mom take you back with her, even after she became clean?" I ask
"I would understand that it was what was best." He says
"My son was 16, and he was old enough to choose to live with me. You knew I didn't have money for court, and court fees to battle you, and you leveraged that to keep my son. It had been four years since I'd seen my child. Luckily, Nicole was 18 and had moved out, so I could see her." Mom explains
"Yeah, I knew about that, but since he's a lawyer, I couldn't do anything" I say
"Now, I'm the bad guy." Bruce says
"Yeah." Jason says, finally speaking up.
"Wow, really Jason." Bruce says
"Look, dad. You could've let him go back to his mom. She was probably motivated to finish rehab so she can get her son and daughter back, but you decided against it. That was messed up, dad." Jason explains.
"I was thinking about you. You finally had your brother." He says
"I could've still had him. You just had it out for Miss Selma. You wanted to teach her a lesson." Jason says, and even I'm shocked at the way he's talking to his dad.
"Teach her a lesson?" Bruce responds.
"Yeah, you left her to be with my mom, just to cheat on her with Miss Selma, ending up with two son's within months of each other. Then from what I'm aware of you left her alone in the projects, to be with mom in the suburbs. That was wrong. So I see why Joe doesn't care for you. I would kinda hate you too." He says, understanding my side.
"Well I get that. I was wrong for cheating on them, bringing life into this world, and not taking care of him initially. I was just caught in a lot of shit, and honestly Tia was my escape. Selma was slipping in school, and she had just got fired from her job, and she had Nicole, so I was basically providing for them, because her parents were dead, and she couldn't lean on anyone. Not to mention I was in law school at the time. I had a lot on my plate back then." He explains, pissing me off further.
I look over at Asia, and she takes my hand.
Asia's POV
This shit is really messed up. The entire situation is messed up. It's not her fault that her parents died, and it's not his fault that she was going through a rough patch, but what is his fault is playing two women, bringing two son's into this world, not knowing that Joe would basically fuck up his brother's life, stemming from Mr. Momoa's abandonment.
"So you thought it was okay to cheat." Jason asks
"I was young, son. I was stressed, and Tia was there. I mean, she didn't know about Selma, we went to college together, so she was my escape." He answers. "And obviously, I loved Selma, because I went back. I know I left afterwards, but I went back." He explains
But how you get two women pregnant though.
"Son, I didn't know that your mom was pregnant when I went back to Selma. I wanted Selma and I to work through our shit, and I was thinking about Nicole. Shortly afterwards, I found out that your mother was pregnant, so I left Selma again, to take care of my responsibility. But note that Selma didn't know Tia until she got pregnant, and I didn't know that Selma was pregnant when I left her to be with your mom." He reveals
That's a bad situation. I wish Joe would put me in a tough spot like that. He broke this woman's heart twice.
"So, did Miss Selma tell you?" Jason asks
"When she was about four months pregnant. I had already dedicated all my attention and time to Tia though. I couldn't just leave. So, I sent her money to help with expenses, but I never told Tia, until Joe was born." He explains.
"That's really messed up, dad." Jason says
"Yeah really fucked up." Joe says, but I tug his hand before he says anything else.
"Come with me." I say softly to him.
He reluctantly stands up, and we walk into the living room. He sits on the sofa, and I sit next to him. I take his hand, looking into his eyes.
"Babe, tell me how you feel as best you can," I say softly
"I'm hurt. I'm angry, and I'm frustrated." He says
"Okay, can you try and tell me why you're hurt, in your own words." I say
"Because a man that claims to be my father left my mom to take care of Nicole, and not once came to see me until I was already ten, by then I was basically grown. I didn't want or need him. I was the man of the house. My mom was selling drugs to make ends meet, and then she got caught up testing the product, and she got addicted. So I knew I had to step up and take care of her and Nicole. Even though Nicci was older, when she and I found my mom unconscious in the middle of her bedroom floor, with a duffel bag full of coke and weed. Nicole passed out from seeing mom like that, and I was the one who nursed mom back to consciousness. I had the presence of mind not to call the police, or paramedics and help her myself, with the help of the internet." He explains. "That's why I hate that man, that's why I'm hurt, because I can't get that image out of my head." He finishes
"I'm so sorry you had to endure that at such a young age. That's horrific." I empathize
"Yeah, so he can fuck himself with a ten inch dildo." Joe says
"Explain to me why you're angry or frustrated, if it's any different." I ask
"He doesn't understand that mom depended on Nic and I. He doesn't understand that his actions caused all this shit. He caused me to ruin my brother's life, he caused me to think the way I think, do the things I do. I'm a fucking muderer, because he made me be a protector at such a young age. I'm angry because he thinks what he did was right, and he lays on the fact that he wanted better for Nicole and I. Fuck that shit, you wanted to be the fucking hero of your own fucked up story, yet you ended up making a whole villain." He explains
"Okay. I receive what you've said. I acknowledge your feelings, and everything that happened. Your feelings are valid, and you have your own truth." I start
"Thank You." He says, leaning over kissing my lips.
"But, now you have to hear, and understand his truth." I say, and he takes a big sigh.
"Babe?" I say
"Okay, explain." He says
"Mr. Momoa was in law school which is stressful in it's own right. Then he was the boyfriend to your mom, who had a child. A baby who needs attention and is fully dependent on her mom and Mr. Momoa. Ms. Selma had lost her job, and was slipping in school. So he had to take on more responsibility to keep your mom and sister afloat. So he got an extra job, to provide for his girlfriend and her child. He was super stressed." I explain.
"Okay. I get that he was in school and had two jobs, but that's his girlfriend. You should do what you have to do for your girlfriend." He responds
"That's true. I agree." I say. "But can't you see that that was too much for him?" I ask
"Yes. I get it." He nods
"Okay, now let's talk about the main issue. Him taking you and Nicole to stay with him." I say
"Okay." He says looking into my eyes, completely vulnerable.
"Ms. Selma was addicted to drugs. So much so that she was impaired and couldn't take care of herself, let alone her kids. You two were in the projects in survival mode all the time. Your father didn't want that for his kids, because he did care for Nicole when she was small. He wanted better for you both. So, he took responsibility and achieved custody for you and Nicole." I begin. "He took you into his home, and although it was tough sometimes, that environment shaped you into the wonderful man you are today. Not everything about you from him is bad, there are some good qualities too. You're protective, you love hard, you're successful, you've became a famous wrestler, which transitioned you to become an actor, and on top of everything else, we met each other, and now we're madly in love." I explain, saying the last part with a big smile. I couldn't help myself.
"I hear you. I understand." He says, genuinely.
"Tell me what you understand." I smile
"Bruce was under a lot of pressure, and he folded. He made some mistakes, big ass mistakes, but overall he was trying to do what was best for me and Nicole in the end." He says
A smile spreads across my face, and I can't help myself. I lean in and peck his lips softly.
"How do you feel?" I ask
"I feel like I should apologize for being so hard on him, and let bygones be bygones, but only after he admits that he hurt me in the process. That's all I want. Acknowledgement." He says. "Acknowledge Me." He adds
"I'll handle it, okay." I say, leaving no room for debate.
We walk through the kitchen into the dining room
"You only sent $400 a month. What was I supposed to do with that? I had to take care of two kids by myself, on tips from The Waffle House. You knew damn well that you owed triple that amount, but since you were a lawyer, you always leveraged your shit." Ms. Selma says, as we sit back down at the table
"I had to provide for Jason and Tia also." He defends
"You were making damn near 5 grand a month, and I know that because I had to sue your ass." She says. "And how did I lose, I have no idea." She says
Damn, I just got through to Joe, dude fucking it up.
I look over at Joe, and I see a scowl growing on his face.
Shit, I have to say something now.
"Um, excuse me?" I say
They all look at me, some faces more angrier than others.
"I would like to help you all understand Joe, a little better." I start
"How can you tell me about my son, Ma'am?" Mr. Momoa ask
"You'll find out, if you shut the fuck up and listen." Jason says, which surprises me. "Go on sweetie." He says, turning his attention to me.
Mr. Momoa's face hardens.
"Joe's hurt." I say. "He doesn't feel heard, and he doesn't feel seen, by his father. He was traumatized from a young age, by decisions his parents made. He had to endure, experience, and do unspeakable things for survival. Then he was ripped from the only environment he's ever known, to live with an established family he doesn't know, on top of losing his mom for six plus years. He thinks that you don't understand that Ms. Selma depended on him and Nicole, that your actions dominoed him into doing and thinking things in a way that isn't healthy. He's upset because you can't acknowledge the hurt that you've caused." I explain.
"Damn." Mr. Momoa says. "I honestly didn't see it that way. I just thought he was taking his anger out on me. I understand a little better now. I didn't intend to hurt him. I was only trying to make my life better, and get out of the ghetto. I wasn't thinking he needed me there, because I was so focused on Jay, and Tia, and I sincerely apologize for that. I was wrong. I hurt him with my actions, and I see it now." He says
Everyone looks at Joe, so I turn around and see him with tears in his eyes.
"Joseph, I was wrong. I'm sorry for hurting you. I really didn't mean any harm. I honestly thought I was doing what was best for you, by not being there, and causing tension between Selma and I. And in response, I caused the tension between Selma and I, and between me and my baby boy." He explains. "That's part of the reason why I jumped at the chance to have you in my life full time, and watch you grow into this wonderful man you are today. I am so proud of you, and now I understand better, why you hate me. And it's okay, I deserve it."
"Look, I'm sorry too. I didn't understand that you had a lot of stress on you back then, and although I believe you should do whatever you can for your girl, I get that mom's situation didn't make it any easier on you. So, I apologize for being such an asshole towards you." Joe says, making us proud.
His mom is crying, and Nicole gets up, and hugs him. Ms. Tia is smiling, lovingly, and Jason is smiling too.
"There we go." Jason says. "Both of you finally understand one another. Good shit."
"Son, are we okay?" Mr. Momoa asks
"There's a lot of shit we need to get through, but I accept your apology, and thank you for acknowledging my pain." He says, transparent
"Thank You, son." Mr. Momoa says. "I love you."
"I'm not there yet." Joe says honestly
"Okay, I respect that." Mr. Momoa responds.
"Now you need to make things right with Nicole. She may act like she's cool with you, but trust me she's hurt about what happened. She had to endure shit from the action of really the only father figure she's known. You need to make things right with her, and you don't you can get the fuck out my house, and delete me from your life." Joe says, seriously.
"Joe, he doesn't owe me anything. He's your father, not mine." She explains
"No, he's right. I can tell from what you've said, and the things that happened to Joe, that I've had a big negative effect on your life, and for that I'm sorry. I really hope we can move past this, snug bug." He says
"Do you mean it?" She asks
"Of course sweetie." He reassures
"Okay, I accept your apology." She says, before walking around the table and hugs him.
I hope this actually starts the healing process with them, and their family. I love them, and I can't stand to see him and Nicole hurt over Mr. Momoa's and Ms. Selma.
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